Mob Mistress speaks out

Eyewitness News Exlusive

February 4, 2009 6:14:13 PM PST

A special prosecutor has now been appointed to determine whether Linda Schiro, the longtime lover of a mafia gangster and the Brooklyn DA's star witness, perjured herself when she took the stand. After being in hiding since the trial, Schiro agreed to sit down with Sarah Wallace, who joins us with her exclusive interview.

Linda Schiro feels used and then abused by the Brooklyn DA's office. You'll hear plenty from her. Although prosecutors were unusually outspoken during the trial until their case imploded. Now, no one from the DA's office is willing to talk on camera.

Sarah Wallace: "How do you feel abut the fact that you're being made out to be the liar?" Linda Schiro:"I feel, I'm in shock."

Linda Schiro doesn't understand how she became the bad guy in a case of an accused FBI agent accused of going bad.

"I told them everything about my personal life ... told them the truth with Lin DeVecchio and then all of a sudden they turn on me, like they just turn on me like I'm the bad person," Schiro said.

Former FBI supervisor Lindley DeVecchio walked out of a Brooklyn court a free man last week after the Brooklyn DA's office suddenly dropped all murder charges against him.

"I think the case was ill-conceived from the very beginning. To bring a prosecution based upon a witness with such baggage as Linda Schiro and Linda Schiro alone this case was destined the end the way it did from day one," said Mark Bederow, DeVecchio's attorney.

The government hinged its case almost solely on the testimony of Schiro, the longtime mob mistress of notorious Mafia hitman Gregory Scarpa, known as the 'Grim Reaper.' She claimed her lover carried out four murders in the 1980s and 1990s at the urging of his FBI handler, DeVecchio.

"Of course he's guilty," Schiro said.

But then audiotapes surfaced of conversations Schiro had with writers 10 years ago, considering a book project. The tapes directly contradicted her testimony about DeVecchio's murderous involvement.

Schiro: "The truth here is I told at the grand jury the truth and I told in court the truth. I did lie to the people who want to do the books. ... I'll make up stories to get a proposal. And to make it exciting like they wanted it." Sarah Wallace: "What you said on the stand was the truth?" Schiro: "Yes."

When the case against DeVecchio unraveling, prosecutors put the blame on Schiro, saying she never told them about all those conflicting stories she'd given about the murders.

Schiro: "They knew I lied to the people who were writing books." Sarah Wallace: "The DA's office?" Schiro: "Yes, they knew I lied."

We obtained e-mails sent to the lead prosecutor from a would-be writer months before the trial raising questions about Schiro's accounts, and her own daughter says she warned DA investigators.

"I was worried about her being called a liar and not being believed ... " said "little" Linda Schiro.

The family says the DA's office has now reneged on a promise to relocate them. The office claims Schiro is no longer a cooperating witness in the case against Devecchio so the relationship is over.

Schiro: "I'm really sick about this Sarah, really sick they can do this to me after I tried with my heart to really help them. ... They don't even wanna get on the phone with us. Won't even talk to me." Sarah Wallace: "You think they hung you out?" Schiro: "Yeah, they hung me out, they hung me out."

The Brooklyn DA's office, which says it stands by Schiro's testimony on the witness stand, requested the investigation by a special prosecutor.

On Eyewitness News at 6 on Friday, we'll go inside Linda Schiro's married to the mob world -- what she knew and a stunning claim about how the FBI used her lover as muscle to solve a civil rights murder.